Nine days ago, the Yankees had few options to fill an open spot in the bullpen.

They had six pitchers on the 40-man to choose from. Two of them were on the Triple-A disabled list, one was a Double-A starter on his way to the disabled list with blister and two had pitched the day before. It was unclear just how serious Pedro Feliciano’s injury might be, making it difficult to open a spot for a non-40-man pitcher.

Hector Noesi was the best option and the Yankees brought him up from Triple-A. Tonight he was sent back having never pitched in a big league game.

“If we had a starter go down, he’s one of the guys we would consider,” Joe Girardi said. “And he’s not getting that type of work here.”

The Yankees have played seven games since calling up Noesi. All of them were decided by four runs or less, and six were decided by three runs or less. They’ve had two off days in that span, and they’d had two days off before making the move. The situation just never lined up for Noesi to get much work, and so the Yankees will plan for the future and let Noesi get stretched out again.

Meanwhile, they’ve added a pitcher for the here and now. In an organization full of pitching talent, Buddy Carlyle is certainly not the most exciting name, but he had 11 strikeouts and three walks through 7.2 innings with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He was charged with three runs, all in one game. At 33 years old, he has 104 games of big league experience, including 27 starts.

“I had a little experience with Buddy in spring training with the Marlins and I saw him with Atlanta,” Girardi said. “Buddy’s a strike-thrower too, and Buddy’s pitched in the big leagues and he has experience and he’s done different things. He’s started in the big leagues. This is an experienced guy.”